Cost Transparency Convening

Advancing Library Cost Transparency Across the Research Enterprise

Tuesday, October 20, 2026 · Johns Hopkins University, 555 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC
This convening is a collaboration between COGR, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), the Association of American Universities (AAU), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), Attain Partners, and the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries & Museums. Participation is by invitation; invitees should RSVP by August 25, 2026 via the link in their invitation. A detailed agenda will be distributed at the end of September.

About the convening

Libraries provide essential infrastructure and expertise across the research lifecycle, including public access support, data stewardship, repositories, evidence synthesis, article processing charges, and journal subscriptions. Yet institutions often lack a clear, shared understanding of the resources required to provide these services or how they contribute to the broader research enterprise. Greater cost transparency can help institutions demonstrate the value of library-supported research services, make more informed investments, strengthen planning and partnerships, identify emerging capacity needs, and respond more effectively to changes in research policy and funding.

The day brings together library leaders, research administrators, costing professionals, higher ed organizations, and institutional leaders for facilitated discussions on the federal policy landscape, institutional cost transparency approaches, and the resources required to support the sharing of research outputs in a way that maximizes the value of the investment in their creation. The convening explores how cost information can support a range of institutional purposes; it is not intended to promote a single financial model.

What it will produce

Participants will contribute to two resources, finalized and distributed following the convening:

  • A landscape paper describing approaches for identifying, organizing, communicating, and using information about library research support costs
  • An institutional self-assessment tool that walks library, research administration, and finance/costing teams through over 20 library research services from their own perspectives, then combines the answers to surface where library research support could be made more financially visible

Workshop for library leaders

Cost Transparency and the Research Library, a workshop facilitated by Attain Partners in collaboration with the Association of Research Libraries, follows on Wednesday, October 21, 9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., at the same location. Library leaders may indicate interest on the RSVP form. The workshop includes a facilitated discussion of library values and priorities in a changing funding environment, a shared vocabulary for discussing library research support costs and value, and examples and emerging practices from peer institutions.

Planning committee

  • Mimi Calter, Vice Provost and University Librarian, Washington University in St. Louis
  • Hilary Craiglow, Senior Manager, Attain Partners
  • Jeremy Forsberg, Executive Director, Office of Research & Sponsored Projects Administration, Arizona State University
  • Cindy Hope, Director, Costing and Financial Compliance, COGR
  • Marcel LaFlamme, Director, Research Policy and Scholarship, Association of Research Libraries
  • Nate Martinez-Wayman, Associate Controller, Post Award Administration & Compliance, Duke University
  • Tim McGeary, Andrew H. and Janet Dayton Neilly Dean of the University of Rochester Libraries, University of Rochester
  • Emily Miller, Deputy Vice President for Institutional Policy, AAU
  • Lisa Mosely, Executive Director, Sponsored Projects Administration, Yale University
  • Kacy Redd, Associate Vice President of Research & STEM Education, APLU
  • Shawna Taylor, Project Director, Johns Hopkins University
  • Krystal Toups, Director, Contracts & Grants Administration, COGR
  • Stacy Winchester, Research Data Librarian, University of South Carolina
  • Cynthia Hudson Vitale, Associate Dean, Johns Hopkins University

The convening is supported in part by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (LG-254930-OLS-23).